Magnis Energy Technologies Ltd (ASX: MNS) has confirmed that Commercial Production has commenced at the Imperium3 New York (iM3NY) Lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Endicott, New York.
Magnis along with its joint venture and technology partner Charge CCCV LLC (C4V) are the major shareholders in iM3NY.
The iM3NY team has put in a huge effort to achieve this major milestone of commercial production with iM3NY being North America’s only pure home-grown battery plant,” iM3NY CEO Chaitanya Sharma said.
“Despite a challenging global environment and supply chain issues, we have successfully started production close to schedule which is a major achievement. We now look forward to increasing production rates toward and over the gigawatt hour mark.”
Magnis Chairman Frank Poullas said that after many years of hard work by everyone involved, the start-up represents a momentous occasion for Magnis, it’s partner C4V and the wider iM3NY team.
“With previously announced binding sales agreements, I look forward to updating the market as we move towards generating revenues and increasing the capacity of the plant to meet some of the huge demand currently experienced for Lithium-ion Batteries especially in the United States.”
Commercial Production Rates and Ramp-up
With commercial production commencing at the iM3NY Lithium-ion Battery plant (the 22,000 square meter plant which exceeds three professional football/soccer fields), it is expected that several thousand cells will be produced in the first month with the main purpose of these cells being quality assurance.
As soon as the cells pass the quality assurance stage, annual manufacturing levels are expected to increase to annual production levels of 1GWh by the end of 2023 and will continue to ramp up to 1.8GWh and then double-digit gigawatts over the rest of this decade.
At the plant capacity of 1.8GWh, 15,000 cells would be produced daily.
Green Credentialed iM3NY Lithium-ion Cells
Engineered to lead the market in safety and performance, iM3NY lithium-ion cells are at the forefront of advanced chemistry, robust cell design, and manufacturing process that ensures low cost, flexibility and long-term high repeatability.
The BMLMP chemistry and prismatic cell design is licensed and patented Charge CCCV technology. It contains Lithium Mixed-Metal Phosphate (LMP) with Biomineralisation to yield BMLMP. The BMLMP technology enables one of the highest voltages of any Lithium-ion cells in the marketplace at 3.9 volts. This is 20% higher than Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) cells and 5-8% higher than Nickel Cobalt Aluminium (NCA) / Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) cells.
The Biomineralisation also promotes long cycle life, fast charging, and ensures greater safety. The chemistry incorporates traditional electrolyte along with a patented mixed metal phosphate composition in the cathode that contributes to the overall safety and performance benefits. Notably there is no Cobalt and no Nickel in this high performing cell.
The prismatic cell is an advanced design with a newly engineered seal, lid, and contact configuration that yields high mechanical integrity and ease of assembly within many different pack configurations. The design also ensures volumetric efficiency for optimised capacity, cell performance and ease of design-in for a wide variety of devices. The prismatic design provides internal mechanical partitioning as an added safety feature over traditional pouch design configuration.
All aspects of the cell have been considered and engineered to ensure maximum performance, safety, and the ability to manufacture high volumes. The manufacturing lines will also be highly optimised for future technologies such as Solid State batteries.
Along with carefully selected supply chain partners and using hydroelectricity for its manufacturing, batteries produced at the iM3NY battery plant will be among the greenest in the marketplace as was independently verified by Abt Associates.